The Body of Christ: A Sociological Perspective on Current Membership of the Roman Catholic Church in America

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Abstract

Taking an objective and critical look at the current state of the Catholic Church in
the United States, this paper attempts to show how a conservative image of the church
affects membership. It first sets out to prove the conservative nature of the American
image of Catholicism. It then shows how the image has affected Catholic membership.
This is broken into two sections, one explaining why Americans may stay away from the
church and the second why they may be attracted. Theories such as religious economy
and rational choice figure in these sections as well as the Catholic identity, Mass, culture
and current response of the laity to the hierarchy. The conclusion recaps and relates all
major points to a prospect of the future of membership. Will the Catholic Church endure
the new modem and critical century?